Last week, we asked the
question in our web reader poll what people seen as the biggest issue facing
Indigenous women? 57.14% voted violence while 42.86% voted colonialism.

According to Statistics
Canada The Daily released on February
16, 2017, “Overall, 40% of Aboriginal people were the victims of childhood
physical and/or sexual abuse… 49% of Aboriginal women aged 30 and
older were more likely to have been victims of childhood physical and/or sexual
abuse.”

It’s estimated there
are over 1,100 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. A national
inquiry is set for this year with expectations that the inquiry's final report
with findings and recommendations to be completed by November 1,
2018. The inquiry is one of the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Calls to Action
Recommendations.

The case of Marlene Bird
from Prince Albert faced an act of violence which gained national attention to
her extensive injuries. Back in 2014, Bird was found in Prince Albert’s parking
lot severely beaten and was set on fire with burns that left doctors with no
choice but to amputate both of her legs. According to media reports, Bird’s
attacker Leslie Ivan Roderick Black was found guilty of attempted murder
and read an apology statement in the city’s court today in the dangerous
offender hearing, which started on March 13th. Black will be
sentenced on April 21st.

Another recent
example of violence against Indigenous women is the Nadine Machiskinic inquest
which will be on March 27-31, 2017 in Regina. Machiskinic was a 29-year-old
Indigenous woman who died after she fell 10-stories from the city’s Delta hotel
laundry chute January 2015. The inquest will determine how she died a tragic
death.